UPDATED Oct. 3, 2012: You did it! You helped us meet and pass the goal. The final number of children sponsored was 3,159. We’ll announce the prize winners in a blog post on Oct. 8. Stay tuned!

September is Blog Month at Compassion. And what that means is prizes, giveaways, blogging assignments and more children sponsored via the Internet than any previous September in our history.

The goal is 3,108 children sponsored between Sept. 1 and Sept. 30.

Who Can Participate?

Anyone can participate but if you want to be eligible for the prizes and giveaways you must be a Compassion Blogger. Join now.

What is a Compassion Blogger?

Simply put, a Compassion Blogger is someone using his or her blog to change the world for children in poverty. Compassion Bloggers receive monthly emails with suggested topics to write about in support of our ministry and programs.

You need a blog to in order to complete the writing assignments we send out in Sept. Each assignment you complete will qualify you for a giveaway.

If you don’t have a blog, you can still “participate” by telling others about blog month, sharing blog posts via email, your social networks, etc.

You’re also welcome to create a blog just for the month of September. We don’t mind at all.

How Will Blog Month Actually Work?

We will send an email to the Compassion Bloggers network each Monday in September with the latest blogging “assignment.” The first week will be an exception. The assignment will be sent on Tuesday, the day after Labor Day.

The assignments will include the topic for the week and provide a host of resources for you to use. You can write about whatever you like, but to be eligible for the assignment giveaways you’ll need to write about the suggested topic.

You can write about the assignments anytime in September, but you’ll quickly realize that for some of the prizes writing sooner rather than later may be advantageous.

After the email has been sent to the Compassion Bloggers, we will share details about the assignment in our social networks, so you can participate by helping generate buzz around the campaign.

What are the Prizes and Giveaways, and How Can I Win?

Let’s start with the giveaways. All you have to do to get some of this swag is write.

Complete one blogging assignment and you will receive a free electronic copy of You Are a Writer by Jeff Goins.

This is an eBook about what it takes to be a writer in the 21st Century.

In it, you will learn everything from how to get started with a writing career to ultimately getting your work published — and all the wonderful work in between.

Mostly, you will learn the importance of believing in your calling and showing up every day to do what you were made to do: write. – Jeff Goins

Complete two blogging assignments and you’ll receive You Are a Writer PLUS Jeff’s newest book, Wrecked. This will also be an ebook.

Wrecked is a book about the life we’re afraid to live—one full of radical sacrifice and selfless service. It’s a look at how we discover fulfillment in the least likely of places.
This is a guide to growing up and learning to live in the tension between the next adventure and our daily commitments – Jeff Goins

Complete three assignments and you will receive You Are a Writer, Wrecked AND a copy of Just a Minute (hardback).

For good or for ill, individual moments in a young person’s life can make all the difference in their future. It may be something said or done by an adult who hardly thinks about it: a hug, a compliment, an intriguing question, a sincere applause. But in that moment, the child discovers who they are, what is important to them, why they matter, and sometimes even what their destiny will be.

Complete all four blogging assignments and you will receive the first three books PLUS a copy of Michael Hyatt’s new book Platform. (hardback).

A platform is your tribe. People who share your passion and want to hear from like-minded people.

If only you had a platform to reach them. Well, now you can . . .

Platform consists of five sections and sixty, short chapters full of practical steps, real-world examples, and helpful resources. It is not armchair theory. It is not idle speculation. It is full of “news you can use” to help you build your own platform. – Michael Hyatt

See. It’s simple. Just write and you get stuff. But there’s MORE.

Each assignment will have prizes associated with them, and the details of how to win will be in each email we send out.

Thanks for stopping by my blog. My friend Jill keeps a master list of Compassion bloggers at everyones finger tips on her blog; you should put your link up on it. You can find her at compassionfamily.blogspot.com

Sounds like a fun challenge! I have a blog that I use to share about the visits that I have made to my sponsored children, but it would also be fun to add other entries on it. I can also share my posts via my facebook feed to generate more traffic.

I follow several Compassion inspired blogs but must mention that bloggingfromtheboonies.com has been such a valuable resource tool in my advocacy and sponsorship and I would love it if Michelle was awarded a blogger’s trip to Ghana

I completely agree! As much as I would LOVE to go on a trip to visit one of my kids, I know the money can go so much farther for them in their country. September is going to be such a great Compassion month!

I’ve only been blogging for a few weeks but I am looking forward to this challenge. It would be so great to win one of the prizes (especially the trip!!!) but I will be happy if I can encourage others to sponsor kids

I assume that you would be a young blogger also I am 13 and I have a blog…it is AMAZING to know that I am making a difference through my writing! If you get one be sure to reply to this comment so that I can visit your blog!

Yeah. I am 14. I asked my dad last night and he said he’d have to talk to my mom about it. We’ll see.
I checked out your blog- it’s so cool!
I put together an idividual bike-a-thon, where you ride with just your family or friends. You get people to sponsor you per kilometer. The money raised is going to sponsor children. If you contact me on Etsy (my shop is madefromscratch4u.etsy.com ) I can tell you more about it and send you the forms. If you are interested that is.

Wow… the very last one got me…. “a spot on one of our blog trips.” How cool would that be? I blog about Compassion all the time but my words are messy… not elegant…. sometimes they will not come. But… I am very tempted to try. One because I LOVE Compassion, 2 because I LOVE how Compassion rescues children from poverty in Jesus name…..

thanks, Jacquie! Ok so I have a question. I joined the compassionbloggers .. but what else do I need to do to sign up for the contest? I did put the little widget on my blog. I am excited.. and not just to win a trip but like someone else said… to be able to win a family gift for our sponsored children .. that is awesome!

You should start receiving the assignments this week via e-mail. You can also get the assignments here: http://compassionbloggers.com/assignments. After you write your blog posts you’ll need to e-mail Brianne (my teammate sending out the assignments) to let her know you wrote them. Please let me know if other questions come up!

Our family has been sponsoring a child for 9 years and I was thrilled to be able to blog for such a worthy cause. Jesus called us to do unto the least of these and Compassion International is such an awesome way to do that.

Question: Brianne’s e-mail says Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest don’t count, if someone sponsors a child through us, through one of those sites. I’m not on Twitter (what–keep to 140 characters? Get real!) or Pinterest, but I do typically link on Facebook to my blog posts. So if someone were to click on that link in FB to read the post on my blog, and then clicked through to the Sponsor a Child landing page, how would that get tracked?

Just wondering.

And I told Brianne that I’m not blogging for rewards, and I wouldn’t be able to travel, even if I were to win the Big One. But winning family or other gifts for one of my sponsored children would be incredible!

Hi Vicki! As long as you are pointing readers to your blog from Facebook we can track your sponsorships. What won’t work is if you send people to the Sponsor a Child page directly from your Facebook page. Does that help?

Hi.. I just set up my website for blogging and am having trouble figuring out how to add the widget/banners to my page. So the blog is active but I want to add the link “I blog for Compassion” and a link to view/sponsor children. Can someone provide guidance? i’m on wordpress

Hi Victoria! Try going to Appearance –> Widgets. Then drag a text box to your sidebar — wherever you want the widget to appear. Cut and paste the widget code into the text box. That should work. Let me know if it doesn’t.

Hi Victoria, you can install a plugin called Widget Builder, and when it is installed it is in the Appearance menu, it acts like a blog post, you click on “add a new widget,” then copy the widget code from Compassion and paste it in. Then you go back to Widgets under Appearance and drag it to the side bar where you want it.